It's a Masked Masked World

It is a Sunday morning.  I finish teaching my morning class and hop down the flight of stairs and merrily sail into the kitchen, filter coffee on my mind.  My jovial mood doesn't last too long though, as I am met by Pavana's steely gaze.

"I'm fed up!", she says.

"Huh?"

"I see so many of your masks lying around in the car!"

"Er... how many..."

"Why do you waste masks like this?"

"Wait... how many masks did you see in the car?"

"I don't know.  You can't just remove a new mask everytime you go out and throw it in the car!"

"Wait... how many ma..."

"The car is in a mess.  The house is in a mess.  Why do I have to keep telling..."

"Wait... how many masks did you..."

"And tell me when are you going to install that shelf?  I can't tell you again and again.  We also need to clean the basement.  There is some smell there, I have told you a hundred times."

"Wait... I thought you were talking abou... ahem... how many masks did y..."

"Doesn't matter.  Don't remove new masks every time!  Also, that smell in the basem..."

"I kept one mask on the dash, that one is new.  It needs to come back in.  The one in the door is mine.  There should be no more masks in the car!  I don't know what masks you are talking about!"

"Let it go, Lalit.  Why do you keep pulling and pulling the saaaaame topic?!!  If you have no interest in cleaning the basement then just say so!"

"Wait... so are we done talking about masks?"

There are masks and masks everywhere nowadays.  Our key holder has two fabric masks and one disposable surgical mask hanging off of it pretty much all the time.  The kitchen island drawer has a disposable N95 mask.  Every single jacket in the mud room has at least one mask in its pocket.  And I need not tell you about the cars!

The COVID-19 pandemic has ruled our existence since March of this year.  Notably, it has resulted in an overall heightened awareness of the modus operandi of communicable diseases.  Everyone now talks like an infectious disease expert and thinks like a socially responsible germaphobe.  For instance, I found myself subconsciously reprimanding F. S. Fitzgerald for not putting masks on Gatsby's midnight party attendees or making them think about social distancing while reading his account of the roaring 20s in The Great Gatsby.  For any juncture in the 20s of this century to be 'roaring' would be an act of sacrilege.  In fact, any roars articulated in today's times are expected to be attenuated by at least one layer of polypropylene.  And for good reason.  Studies have show that masks are effective in containing the spread of COVID-19 by reducing transmission via respiratory droplets(read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191274/, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html).  

You probably don't need a reality check, but here's one just in case.  Remember how shaken we all were back in April when the number of confirmed cases worldwide was inching closer to the 100,000 mark?  Today this number has gone up sevenfold.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that every single one of us is vulnerable.  Unfortunately we as a society seem to have gotten too used to the pandemic.  Isolation fatigue has started setting in as people have started letting their guards down and going out in public without masks.  On one hand we are seeing the deadly impact the virus on our communities, and on the other hand we routinely hear some 21st century Gatsbys proudly proclaim how they were able to organize thousand guest events.  All I can say now is stay safe and do not be foolish.  None of us has has the vaccine yet!